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Ontario taxpayers and businesses should have a close look at the evidence, before accepting the claims within the “Ontario’s Climate Change Discussion Paper 2015” says Friends of Science, pointing to evidence and expert statements that dispute most of the document’s catastrophic climate claims and its overly enthusiastic predictions of a new ‘green’ economy.

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The first possibility is that less global warming is occurring than expected because greenhouse gases, especially CO2, have less of an effect than we have assumed.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada (PRWEB)March 18, 2015

In response to the current Ontario Climate Change public consultations, Friends of Science Society have issued a new report entitled "Climate Change Policy - Ideology or Evidence?" challenging what the Friends say is Ontario's overly optimistic view of carbon tax implications.

This report follows on the heels of the YouTube video clip series entitled "McKitrick on Climate Change," featuring Ontario professor of economics Dr. Ross McKitrick discussing the flaws in the Social Costs of Carbon that Friends of Science released last month. Along with the video series is a layman's version called "The Pause in Global Warming. The Flaws in Climate Models."

McKitrick recommends that policy makers wait two to four years before implementing any new climate change policies. His main concern, expressed in the video clips, is that Social Cost of Carbon assessments (the basis of carbon taxes) are calibrated to faulty climate models, not actual temperatures, leading to wildly exaggerated prices, and that the Social Benefits of fossil fuel use are not accounted for in carbon taxes.

Many respected climate scientists question the accuracy of climate models, like Hans von Storch of Germany, as reported in Der Spiegel July 16, 2013, who said: "The first possibility is that less global warming is occurring than expected because greenhouse gases, especially CO2, have less of an effect than we have assumed."

Judith Curry of Georgia Tech, in her US EPA testimony of Jan. 20, 2014, has public stated that it appears that natural forces are more influential on climate than previously thought. Natural forces include aspects like changes in planetary orbits, solar cycles, changes in the solar wind affecting atmospheric gases, changes in earth’s magnetic field, atmospheric oscillations that move in regional, cyclical patterns, and changing ocean currents to name a few.

The Ontario Climate Change discussion paper also claims that “Climate change is already underway” – which Friends of Science says is obvious since climate has always changed, citing the Minoan, Roman and Medieval Warm periods of the past, that were followed by periods of much colder, extreme climate dips, like that of the Little Ice Age. None of these cycles could have been caused by human activity.

There is no evidence showing an increased trend in weather extremes, according to a report by Canadian research scientist Madhav Khandekar, entitled “The Extreme Weather – Global Warming Link” issued Nov. 2013 by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, noting also that warming has paused.

The Ontario discussion paper claims that reducing carbon emissions will create a new economy, but this is not borne out by the evidence either, says Friends of Science. Spectacular failures of renewables or clean-tech around the world have shown this statement to be a fallacy. Ontario itself bore witness to the collapse of “Better Place” electric vehicle company that went from an asset value of $2 Billion in 2012 to a bankruptcy value of $12 million by 2013 as reported by the reported by CBC Television May 27, 2013.

Friends of Science Society’s position is that public policy should be based on evidence, not computer climate model predictions.

About

Friends of Science have spent a decade reviewing a broad spectrum of literature on climate change and have concluded the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2). The core group of the Friends of Science is a growing group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers and citizens.